Claude API skill

The claude-api skill is an open-source Agent Skill that provides Claude with detailed, up-to-date reference material for building applications on two Anthropic surfaces:

• Messages API: The primary surface for single requests, streaming chat, tool use, batch processing, prompt caching, structured outputs, and custom agent loops.
• Claude Managed Agents (beta): An Anthropic-hosted surface for server-managed stateful agents with Anthropic-hosted tool execution, persistent agent configs, and per-session sandboxes.

It covers eight programming languages for both the Messages API and Managed Agents: Python, TypeScript, C#, Go, Java, PHP, Ruby, and cURL.

The skill comes bundled with Claude Code and is also available in the open-source Anthropic skills repository, where you can install it in any environment that supports Agent Skills.

The skill uses progressive disclosure to keep context efficient: Claude loads only the documentation relevant to your project's language, surface (Messages API or Managed Agents), and the specific task at hand (tool use, streaming, batches, and so on), rather than loading everything at once.

What the skill provides

When triggered, the skill equips Claude with:

For the Messages API:

• Language-specific SDK documentation: Installation, quick start, common patterns, and error handling for your project's language
• Tool use guidance: Language-specific examples and conceptual foundations for function calling, including the beta tool runner where available
• Streaming patterns: Implementation details for building chat UIs and handling incremental display
• Batch processing: Offline batch processing at 50% cost
• Prompt caching: Prefix-stability design, breakpoint placement, and silent-invalidator audit
• Model migration: Step-by-step guidance for migrating to newer Claude models (including the breaking changes and behavior shifts on Claude Opus 5 and Claude Fable 5.1)
• Current model information: Model IDs, context window sizes, and pricing
• Common pitfalls: Detailed guidance on avoiding frequent mistakes when integrating with the API

For Managed Agents (beta):

• Onboarding flow: An interview-driven walkthrough for setting up a new Managed Agent from scratch, available through the /claude-api managed-agents-onboard subcommand
• Language-specific Managed Agents docs: Creating persistent agents, starting sessions, streaming events, and handling tool confirmations for Python, TypeScript, C#, Go, Java, PHP, Ruby, and cURL
• Client patterns: Lossless stream reconnect, processed_at queued/processed gate, interrupt handling, file-mount gotchas, and credential handling
• Deployment constraints: Managed Agents is available on the Claude API and Claude Platform on AWS only (not on Amazon Bedrock, Google Cloud, or Microsoft Foundry). The skill routes other deployments to the Messages API and tool use instead.

When the skill activates

The skill activates in two ways:

Automatic activation occurs when:

• Your code imports an Anthropic SDK (anthropic for Python, @anthropic-ai/sdk for TypeScript/JavaScript)
• You ask Claude to help build, debug, or optimize something with the Claude API, an Anthropic SDK, or Managed Agents
• You add, modify, or tune a Claude feature in a file (prompt caching, adaptive thinking, compaction, tool use, batch, files, citations, memory) or a model reference

Manual invocation by typing /claude-api (with optional subcommand or prose) in any environment where the skill is installed.

The skill does not activate for general programming tasks, ML/data-science work, or code that imports other AI SDKs (such as OpenAI).

Supported languages

The skill detects your project's language automatically by examining project files (for example, requirements.txt for Python, tsconfig.json for TypeScript, go.mod for Go) and loads the appropriate documentation.

If your project uses multiple languages, Claude asks which one applies. For unsupported languages (Rust, Swift, C++), the skill provides cURL/raw HTTP examples.

How to use the skill

In Claude Code (bundled)

The skill ships with Claude Code and requires no installation. When you ask Claude to help build something with the Claude API, or when your project already imports an Anthropic SDK, the skill activates automatically.

You can also invoke it directly:

/claude-api

For more about how bundled skills work in Claude Code, see the Claude Code skills documentation.

From the skills repository

The skill source is available in the Anthropic skills repository. You can install it using the npx command:

npx skills add https://github.com/anthropics/skills --skill claude-api

Or install it as a Claude Code plugin:

/plugin marketplace add anthropics/skills
/plugin install claude-api@anthropic-agent-skills

Migrating to a newer Claude model

The Claude API skill can perform Claude model migrations across a code base. Invoke it directly with /claude-api migrate:

/claude-api migrate this project to claude-opus-5

You can also pass a specific scope up front to skip the scope-confirmation question:

/claude-api migrate everything under src/ to claude-opus-5
/claude-api migrate apps/api.py and apps/worker.py to claude-opus-5

When the scope is ambiguous (for example, a bare /claude-api migrate to claude-opus-5), the skill asks you to choose between the entire working directory, a specific subdirectory, or an explicit file list before editing any files. This applies to both Messages API and Managed Agents callers.

The skill handles:

• Model ID swaps, including typed SDK constants (Model.CLAUDE_OPUS_4_8 → Model.CLAUDE_OPUS_5) across all supported languages, and classifies each file as a caller, a model definer, or an opaque string reference before editing
• Cloud platform detection, preserving platform-specific model ID formats (for example, the anthropic. prefix on Amazon Bedrock) and skipping changes for features that are unavailable on partner-operated platforms
• Breaking parameter changes, such as removing temperature, top_p, and top_k for Claude Opus 4.8 and Claude Opus 4.7, and converting thinking: {type: "enabled", budget_tokens: N} to thinking: {type: "adaptive"}
• Prefill replacement, converting assistant-message prefill patterns to structured outputs where applicable
• Beta header cleanup, removing beta headers that the target model doesn't require (for example, effort-2025-11-24, fine-grained-tool-streaming-2025-05-14, interleaved-thinking-2025-05-14) and switching back from client.beta.messages.create to client.messages.create
• Effort calibration, recommending an output_config.effort starting point for the target model (for example, the default high on Claude Opus 5, and xhigh for coding and agentic use cases on Claude Opus 4.8 and Claude Opus 4.7)
• Prompt-behavior tuning, flagging length-control, tool-triggering, subagent, and instruction-following prompts that may behave differently on the target model
• Silent default handling, opting back into thinking summarization (thinking.display: "summarized") when reasoning is surfaced to users on Claude Opus 4.8 and Claude Opus 4.7
• Refusal fallback configuration, adding stop_reason: "refusal" handling before reading response content and setting up a fallback retry path when the target is Claude Fable 5.1, Claude Fable 5, or Claude Opus 5 (the server-side fallbacks parameter, typically in its "default" mode, the SDK refusal-fallback middleware, or a fallback-credit retry), and updating fallback code written against earlier preview shapes

As it edits, the skill explains each change and its motivation inline. On completion, it produces a checklist of items that require manual verification (typically integration tests, length-control prompt tuning, and cost/rate-limit re-baselining).

For the full list of model-specific changes the skill applies, see Migrating to Claude Opus 5 from Claude Opus 4.8 and Migrating to Claude Fable 5.1.

Setting up a Managed Agent

To scaffold a new Managed Agent from scratch, invoke the managed-agents-onboard subcommand:

/claude-api managed-agents-onboard

The skill runs an interview that walks you through the Managed Agents mental model (Agent configs versus Sessions), templates an agent config, configures environments and tools, sets up the session loop, and emits runnable code for your language. The skill also covers the mandatory Agent (once) → Session (every run) flow: model, system, and tools live on the agent, never on the session, and agents should be created once and referenced by ID.

Managed Agents requires the managed-agents-2026-04-01 beta header, which the SDK sets automatically for all client.beta.agents.*, client.beta.environments.*, client.beta.sessions.*, and client.beta.vaults.* calls.

Example usage

Here are examples of tasks the skill helps Claude handle:

Building a chat application:

Build a streaming chat UI with the Claude API in TypeScript

Migrating an existing project:

/claude-api migrate this codebase to claude-opus-5 and re-tune effort

Onboarding a new Managed Agent:

/claude-api managed-agents-onboard

In each case, the skill loads the relevant language-specific documentation and guides Claude through the implementation using current API patterns and best practices.

Next steps